Chick-fil-A Bowl Creates Sustainability Summit

ATLANTA (August 24, 2011) – A longtime leader in community involvement, the Chick-fil-A Bowl is taking a new leadership position by creating a unique and groundbreaking forum on sustainability issues in college athletics.
 
The one-day event is titled the Chick-fil-A Bowl Sustainability Summit and is the first gathering of its kind for college athletics. The summit will provide a forum for university leaders to share their current sustainability efforts, as well as learn about best practices in environmental sustainability.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl Sustainability Summit will be held August 30 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center and will include a number of representatives from universities throughout the region. Presentations will focus on environmental challenges facing college athletic programs.
 
Universities scheduled to attend include Auburn, Florida State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana State, Ole Miss, Georgia State, Kennesaw State and Emory.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl established itself as a Bowl industry leader in environmental responsibility by launching its sustainability efforts in 2010, making it among the first college bowl games to focus on proactive green initiatives.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl is now actively pursuing ways to spread the impact of sustainability efforts throughout college athletics.

“The goal of our sustainability program is to set the tone for the industry in terms of how we approach environmental issues. The experts we have partnered with created a winning team focused on reaching that goal,” said Gary Stokan, Chick-fil-A Bowl president and CEO. “Together we plan to build on that foundation and grow our efforts, creating a model for others to follow.”
 
Partnering with Coca-Cola Recycling LLC, Waste Management, Hagler Homrich Consulting (a leading sustainability consultant) and the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, the Chick-fil-A Bowl instituted a recycling program that featured nearly 700 beverage container recycling bins positioned throughout the GWCC, tailgating lots and the Georgia Dome, and specially marked recycling bags were distributed to, and collected from tailgaters.

These efforts resulted in almost 12 tons, or 32%, of the total waste material generated on game day being diverted from landfills. From a manufacturing perspective, the amount of recycled products saved 359 gallons of oil and 24,850 gallons of water.

Spurred by the success of the inaugural sustainability effort, the Bowl has expanded the scope of its green initiative to include the use of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper to produce print projects, the use of renewable energy to power the Georgia Dome on game day and a partnership with Home Depot to provide fans with coupons for complimentary compact fluorescent light bulbs, which use 75% less energy and can last 10 times longer than standard incandescent bulbs.
 
About the Chick-fil-A Bowl:
 The Chick-fil-A Bowl is the ninth-oldest bowl game in the country and hosts the longest-running rivalry series between the ACC and SEC. Now in its 44th year, the Chick-fil-A Bowl has established itself as one of the nation’s elite bowl games with a string of 14 consecutive sellouts and has earned a reputation as one of the most competitive bowls in the nation. Ten of the last 19 games have been decided by a touchdown or less. The Chick-fil-A Bowl has disbursed more than $103 million in team payouts over its 43-year history and has increased team payout every year since 1996. The Bowl also leads all other bowl games in charitable and scholarship contributions, giving more than $7 million to organizations in need since 2002. Other events under the Chick-fil-A Bowl brand include the Chick-fil-A Bowl Challenge head coach and celebrity golf event each spring and the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game season-opening game over Labor Day weekend.
 

More information about the Chick-fil-A Bowl and its events is available at www.chick-fil-abowl.com. For news, updates and insider information, follow us on Twitter at @ChickfilABowl or find us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ChickfilABowl.